Back from Spring Break 2011

Oops, I sorta fell off the wagon in regards to writing blog posts. Our family was down in Texas for Melissa's brother Kevin's wedding. It was a fantastic time with family and friends! I had the pleasure of officiating the wedding between Kevin and Kari. It was short and to the point with a little humor added:-)

Here's a few pics of our time:
The pic. with the three gals is Melissa with her two sisters Michelle and Marcie. The one with the Kevin and Kari leaving the reception is of me smashing a fist full of rose pedals over top Kevin's head:-)

Men's Overnight: A bonding experience

For it only having been 22 hours, we men sure ate, laughed, played and shared a lot together!

There was a lot of transparent conversation on the topic of anger.

Here's a few pics from our time together:

2011 Men's Overnight

About 25 men are carpooling down to a lake house for the evening and most of Saturday. It will be a time to laugh and joke but also be challenged about the anger we have in our lives. Tonight Pat Kearney will be giving a short testimony about anger in his life as well as Adam Koloff leading in a talk about why we get angry. Tomorrow morning Michael Preininger will show us about how Jesus handled anger and I'll finish off with some practical tips on managing our anger and having the guys get into groups and look at "Five Angry Guys" from the OT. On the way down each car will be listening to an Andy Stanley message on anger to help get us prepared for the weekend.
From what I see signed up to go there's a good cross section of the congregation: young adults to older men and newer guys to original launch team members. Every elder is signed up too:-)
I provide pics soon.

Encounter's 2011 Women's Brunch

This morning was a real delight as I was able to attend our women's brunch. Why was I, a mere man, allowed to gain entrance into the hollowed halls of these women??? Well, my wife Melissa called me and asked if I could valet cars b/c it was raining:-) I also held a baby and sat with the guest speakers husband and father. I was moral support for those two guys since they were total strangers in a sea of women.
It was really neat to see our Encounter ladies and guests interact. There must have been almost 70 women there altogether. The food was great and the speaker did an excellent job talking about forgiveness.

New Message Series

This week we start a new series on the 10 Commandments titled, "The BIG TEN". It will be only five weeks long so a lot has to be packed into some of the weeks. Here's how it will break down:

March 6 - Worship God/No idols/Don't misuse His name

March 13 - Remember the Sabbath

March 20 - Obey Mom and Dad

March 27 - Don't kill or sleep with the wrong person

April 3 - Don't lie to or envy others